About Pete Carroll ... and other coaches

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WestCoastJoe
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Pete Carroll has my attention. More and more obviously, after the big Super Bowl win.

http://blog.longreads.com/post/when-ric ... e-carroll/
When Richard Sherman Met Pete Carroll

I was a high school junior when I first met him. I got pulled out of class unexpectedly to see him waiting in the hallway—Pete Carroll, national championship-winning head coach. We stood and talked there by the lockers for a few minutes. I’ll never forget that—USC’s head coach coming to recruit me at Dominguez High School in Compton in 2004. At the time, it was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

He said, “you’ve got the purrfect size to be a lock-up corner.” I’d never heard that before: “lock-up” corner. I made ‘lockup2006’ my email address and used it until I got to college. I didn’t end up going to USC, because my mind was already made up to go to Stanford, and there was no way I was passing up the opportunity to get a Stanford education, but I could tell then there was something that separated Carroll from others coaches who recruited me. You could feel the positive energy, how upbeat he was and how much he believed in what he was saying. He had a different aura to him.

-Richard Sherman, in Sports Illustrated, on the Seattle Seahawks coach. Read more from Sports Illustrated in the Longreads Archive.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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WestCoastJoe
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Wow.

http://www.esquire.com/features/pete-carroll-1009

Different than Bill Walsh. But he somehow reminds of Walsh. The California air. Casual but nevertheless cool. Carroll is much more loosely wired. The deep attention to detail, according to their own values, what they want from athletes.

ADD apparently, as is his son, nicknamed BC.

Some excerpts from this long article ...

At a press conference ...
"There's something I want to say before we get rolling," Carroll said gravely, causing Jackson's pearly smile to wither. "We have members of the media here" — the emphasis his — "that we're really happy to have." He rolled his eyes theatrically, issued a large fake smile.

Big laugh from the crowd.

"So we have to be careful and respectful of all the issues that are about," he continued. "We want to respect the media... and not tell them a thing!"

Hoots and laughter.

"Let's introduce them," Coach Floyd said archly, warming to the game. In the grip of his viscous southern accent, the idea sounded ominous.

"Honestly," Carroll said, addressing the crowd with all earnestness, "we can't talk about everything. So you can ask great questions... and we'll answer the ones we like."

"Only the ones we like," Floyd added, a dead man sitting in a director's chair. He seemed to sense it.

"As a matter of fact," Carroll said to Jackson, puffing himself up lampoonishly, "that first question you asked? I'm not frickin' answering it."

Huge laugh, followed by applause.

"Big Balls Pete!" chanted the rowdy guys in the back.
"We both have ADD," Brennan says. "We're weird. It probably helps more than it hurts, being a little off the wall. In this profession there probably aren't a whole lot of people who would pattern their styles after the way he is, and now I'm the junior version of that."
"One day I was home in my office," Carroll told the group. "I was reading one of coach John Wooden's books. Of course I knew his story about UCLA, the great basketball program, and all that stuff, but I was reading it to confirm — well, I don't know why exactly I was reading it. Let's face it, I'd just been fired. I had plenty of time on my hands.

"I got to the point in the book where he said that he was in his sixteenth year at UCLA before he won his first national championship. He'd coached other places before; he'd won Pac-10 championships, he had a great winning record. But as soon as I saw that, I smacked the book closed." He clapped his hands together; the loud sound had a startling effect on the rapt crowd. "*poop*. It hit me just like I got punched right in the forehead!

"Once he got it, he just nailed it. Once he figured out what was right for him, how to engineer his program in the way that best exemplified his philosophy, nobody could touch him. He wins nine of the next eleven championships, and then he retires, just goes off into basketball heaven. How beautiful is that?

"And then I thought, Oh, crap, it took him sixteen years. And I don't even have a job. I better get my act together. I started working that moment. I got a notebook out and started writing. I asked myself: What is my philosophy, what is my approach? And I came up with the thought that if I was going to describe me, the first thing I'd say is I'm a competitor. Just one simple line. I'm a competitor. That's my whole life since I was three, four years old. I tried to beat my big brother in every game we played. All of his friends would just laugh at how hard I'd try. I'd be fighting and scratching and crying and whatever it took, from the time I was a little kid. Reading Wooden, I realized: If I'm gonna be a competitor, if I'm ever going to do great things, I'm going to have to carry a message that's strong and clear and nobody's going to miss the point ever about what I'm all about.
"From there, the next thought that came to mind was Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead."

Carroll stopped at the podium again. He surveyed the crowd. Everyone was expecting a joke... but none came.

"Jerry Garcia said that he didn't want his band to be the best ones doing something," Carroll explained slowly, wanting the words to sink in. "He wanted them to be the only ones doing it. To be all by yourself out there doing something that nobody else can touch — that's the thought that guides me, that guides this program: We're going to do things better than it's ever been done before in everything we do, and we're going to compete our ass off. And we're gonna see how far that takes us."
"Let's come out of our shoes today on these kids, man," he told his staff. "Let's just coach the sh** out of these guys. I want lots of enthusiasm. I want you frickin' screamin' and yellin' and makin' 'em feel it. Make it memorable — but don't abuse anybody."
He swiveled around and looked over the top of his reading glasses. "What do you got for me?"

Tell me about your parents, I said.

Carroll frowned. "Nobody really gets into too much of that. We're pretty private."

Did your dad like sports?

"My dad was a great fan."

Was he an athlete?

"A little bit. He was a good golfer and stuff like that. But he was real competitive. And really smart. It was hard to beat him in anything, you know, he was really tough. He was kind of brash and all that. A good man, though, a really good man. A good average guy."

How about your mom?

"My mom was really cool. She's the one that gave me the mentality about believing in myself and trusting it, that I was always gonna be okay and that I could do things in a special way. She just pumped me up, you know?"

Were you always a good athlete?

"I was the best guy, you know, all through Little League and Pop Warner and that kind of stuff. But when I went to high school, I was undersized. I didn't grow. I was behind the whole puberty cycle. I didn't like high school. I was always pissed because I wasn't who I wanted to be — the person I knew myself to be just wasn't happening. At one time I was the best. And then in high school — *poop*. I looked like the mascot in the frickin' team picture.

"When I went to junior college, it started happening for me. And when I finally got to Pacific, my first year I made the all-conference team, I was captain, all that *poop*. It was like I had a chip on my shoulder. I had something to prove; I was gonna prove it to everybody. I've lived that way ever since."
Not quite from the cookie cutter. He is for sure very different. I am a big fan.
..........

I especially like what he has done with "A better LA," and "A better Seattle," working to get away from gang culture.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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WestCoastJoe
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Some people get stuff wrong.
Tom Dienhart, Carroll's hiring is another mistake for troubled USC, The Sporting News, January 1, 2001.
Larry Stewart, You Don’t Have to Be a USC Alum to Hate This Hire, Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2000. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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notahomer
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I read his book last year (Win). I have always liked Pete Carroll but I understand why the rah'rah coach gets some fans goat. I think I'm hearing so much about the seahawks system but really its about culture. People wonder why teams like the Canucks get close but not quite over the hump. Culture is part of it and that is why a tweak here/there can be all the difference..... Look at how Buono has impacted the culture of the pre-Buono times and now maybe that culture needs another shift (with/without him).

Carroll sounds Dungy-like in a lot of ways. Dungy was known in Tampa Bay for simplyfying things rather than getting all complicated. I like the approach of getting guys to play to their strengths. Don't worry about what they are gonna do, just do your best. Carroll apparently really treats the players holistically (okay, what does that mean?). I think it means they are football players but they are also people too. The days of hours of gassers and 'lets kick some ass' are over.

I saw a blurb that the Martin report is due to hit the street on thursday and I DO NOT EVER seeing a Carroll coached team needing an intervention on bullying of a team member. It almost seems like a family which is often a term used to describe successful football teams....
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WestCoastJoe
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nota, I would say Carroll sees the humanity in people. And they see it in him. I agree it is about culture. And he wants grit in his players. His staff looks for special abilities, and does not avoid some negatives (in this case examples such as skill or physical limitations). Most teams eliminate guys for these considerations. They take guys with special skills or attributes, but rated low by most teams, and try to find ways to fit them into their systems. The Seahawks roster is loaded with them. Bryant is an example. Wilson is another.

Interesting about ADD. Seen as a disability, but look at the outcome with Carroll. And autistic kids can have amazing powers, mostly untapped as of yet.

I will post more about Carroll. Been reading about him in the Seattle Times.

One can see why the uptight football culture knocks him. Different = no good for most. I have found the same with many athletes. Looking for weakness. Not accepting different as equal. Part of their survival skills, but not the best way in the modern world. The sniping between athletes can be brutal, as we have seen with the Dolphins.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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Toppy Vann
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notahomer wrote:I read his book last year (Win). I have always liked Pete Carroll but I understand why the rah'rah coach gets some fans goat. I think I'm hearing so much about the seahawks system but really its about culture. People wonder why teams like the Canucks get close but not quite over the hump. Culture is part of it and that is why a tweak here/there can be all the difference..... Look at how Buono has impacted the culture of the pre-Buono times and now maybe that culture needs another shift (with/without him).

Carroll sounds Dungy-like in a lot of ways. Dungy was known in Tampa Bay for simplyfying things rather than getting all complicated. I like the approach of getting guys to play to their strengths. Don't worry about what they are gonna do, just do your best. Carroll apparently really treats the players holistically (okay, what does that mean?). I think it means they are football players but they are also people too. The days of hours of gassers and 'lets kick some ass' are over.

I saw a blurb that the Martin report is due to hit the street on thursday and I DO NOT EVER seeing a Carroll coached team needing an intervention on bullying of a team member. It almost seems like a family which is often a term used to describe successful football teams....

You have a lot of great points about the culture of a sports team where it a shared collective sense of what this team and its players does and does not do as well as the over complication of things.

And the choice of the Canucks and the culture is a good one and note how the players backed Torts for his actions and also they all were hi-fiving this new tough 'we got each other's back' philosophy which is diametrically opposed to the actual object of winning games. Look at what's happened since they got tough. A disaster. Torts riding his stars early in a 80 plus game season was not about building the right team culture but insanity.

Seattle has done things right and there young QB has helped as he has a good, sensible outlook.

Your bullying/hazing example is a good one too.

A team culture develops around a core of players in a team and football with its split between OFF and DEF and all the others on the PR has a more challenging time to get this right. If the core are not committed and if the HC is not clear on what they are trying to do and how they are play etc or the core is lazy - you get bad results.

Not sure what happened to the Broncos but looking at the hi-lite reel over and over makes it look that their players collectively took a dive. Opening snap for a 2 pointer- kick return to open the 2nd half with a TD - and some shoddy tackling and dumb penalty for PI to put them on the 1 yard line. Brutal.

A coach knows he has his culture when players say pre-kick off and half time "just play our game" and everyone knows exactly what means and everyone is committed.

The second part of that is how a team handles adversity in a game. The issue is how you respond when your opponent no matter how bad they are goes on a run. Handling that is how a good team is defined.

Austin made a point in his presser about the Zach C and starting that signalled this guy is likely to be no. 1 but noted how on their team that is not an issue. Austin last year used all 3 QBs and I suspect he will do so this year. If he needs a runner in there its Dan L. He doesn't care if he hurts his starters feelings. He built a very good team culture last year too.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
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notahomer
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Toppy Vann wrote: ....
The second part of that is how a team handles adversity in a game. The issue is how you respond when your opponent no matter how bad they are goes on a run. Handling that is how a good team is defined.

Austin made a point in his presser about the Zach C and starting that signalled this guy is likely to be no. 1 but noted how on their team that is not an issue. Austin last year used all 3 QBs and I suspect he will do so this year. If he needs a runner in there its Dan L. He doesn't care if he hurts his starters feelings. He built a very good team culture last year too.
Austin is a good CFL example, IMO. The Ticats 'culture' did not do so well in the Grey Cup game, in part due to the adversity you described. IIRC, he openly admitted how much of their performance in the Grey Cup was due to him. I know that is part to be expected, but I just like the way he admitted it and took his share of responsilbity. There was an aura in the culture of that Rider team he won a Grey Cup with too, IMO. And many members of that team just did not do that well in the years that followed when he was no longer running the ship.

Its going to be interesting to see how the Seahawks continue over the next few seasons. Many predict a dynasty. Others are not so sure. I'm in the latter camp. Dynasties are tough to accomplish in these eras in professional sports. THe division that the Seahawks reside in was considered an absolute JOKE just a few seasons ago. IMO, all four NFC West teams deserved to be in the playoffs. I think the 49ers, Cardinals, Rams and Seahawks will be pushing each other. The other big thing is that once an idea gives a team an advantage, it gets copied. Especially once the Coaches start getting pilfered. So, IOW, I can see Carroll leading the team to another Superbowl. But I do NOT see a power dynasty ala the 70's Steelers etc...

I know this sounds anti-Seahawk but I think I'm just being realistic. The Cardinals did beat the Seahawks in Seattle and Niners came close in the NFC championship. I do think the Seahawks are going to stay near the top being a young team but the NFL will be a lot more ready for them, IMO......
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Toppy Vann
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It is realistic. It is tough to think they will have all the same guys back.
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Toppy Vann wrote:It is realistic. It is tough to think they will have all the same guys back.
True, but they should have the core back. Many of these guys are still on their rookie contracts, believe it or not. They're a young team. The two guys who've been mentioned as players they might lose (or have to work hard to keep) are Michael Bennett and Golden Tate. But they do have some cap dollars in Sidney Rice's very-large contract, and the betting is that he won't be back. They'll lose a few guys, I think, but they'll keep the playmakers and might add some talent. My hope is that they retain the defense (they might lose Bennett, but he could be replaced), but build the offense. In my view (not necessarily shared by everyone), they need a true No. 1 receiver to replace Rice, and I think it's pretty universally-agreed that their O-line has been the team's weakness this year. They need to pick up two dominating guards. Sweezy and McQuistan just haven't been good enough this year, and, if it weren't for Okung, Unger, and (to a lesser extent) Giacomini, Marshawn Lynch would have been stuffed a lot more.

They've got two smart guys, though, in Pete Carroll (who has overall control of everything, including personnel) and John Schneider, who's proven to be a shrewd judge of talent and sharp contract negotiator, and I expect the 'Hawks to be in the Super Bowl conversation going into the 2014-15 season.
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http://seattletimes.com/html/seahawks/2 ... 17xml.html

Excerpts ...
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll finds success, his way

Even when he was considered too soft and laid back for the NFL, Pete Carroll never stopped believing that his way would work.

By Jayson Jenks

Seattle Times staff reporter

There are two Pete Carrolls, but we usually only hear about one of them. That’s the guy we see chomping gum on the sideline and heaving footballs before games and generally having a blast. That Pete Carroll is 62 going on 30 and was once considered unfit for the NFL. Today he is held up as the antithesis of what is expected from an NFL coach.
But what about the other Pete Carroll? He’s the one who notices when a player’s foot placement is slightly off at practice, who constructed the blueprint for Seattle’s defense and who will rip a player when needed.

The perception of Carroll through the years has played out like a game of tug of war. Can the coach deemed too laid back for the NFL be the same one whose team is now on the verge of the Super Bowl?

“With the talk about all the rah-rah stuff, it sort of misses the point of it,” says Spencer Torgan, a walk-on under Carroll at USC. “He’s deadly serious when it comes to football. He just believes it’s OK to have fun doing it. But if you step out of line or cross him, you’re either gone from the program or you might as well be dead to him.”
“People like to make things simple and say, ‘He got fired from the NFL, and he’s purrfect for college,’ ” says Daryl Gross, Syracuse’s athletic director and an influential person in hiring Carroll at USC before the 2001 season. “ ‘This is where he should have been all along.’ I’d always say, ‘Please don’t say that. Please don’t market that.’ He told me a long time ago, ‘One day, I might go back and win the Super Bowl.’ ”
Lane Kiffin tried to be Pete Carroll. He implemented many of Carroll’s concepts when he became the Raiders’ coach in 2007. Tell-the-truth Monday. Competition Wednesday. He put heavy emphasis on winning the turnover battle, same as Carroll.

“I was with Lane Kiffin in Oakland, and he tried to do some of that stuff,” tight end Zach Miller says. “But it didn’t feel like it was coming from him. It felt like he was trying to copy Pete’s style. Guys could tell that, and he didn’t have the same enthusiasm that coach Carroll has. He has an infectious personality that makes you just want to play well.

“He’s the best coach I’ve ever had.”
Throughout his three-year tenure in New England, Patriots fans clamored for him to be something else. Parcells criticized his players in public; Carroll occasionally hugged his players in public. Parcells made demands; Carroll asked for input.

In many ways it was an unfair comparison because it undercut the rest of Carroll, especially his cutthroat competitiveness, but the perception stuck.

Carroll never felt he had the control he needed to succeed, the kind he had at USC. After firing Carroll, Patriots owner Robert Kraft changed course and gave Carroll’s successor, Bill Belichick, total control of the organization. As Kraft explained to The Boston Globe when discussing Carroll in 2010, “Sometimes you meet special people, but it’s just not at the right time of your life.”

Control was a deal-breaker if Carroll was going to return to the NFL, but he didn’t think he’d find a team willing to give it to him. Four or five teams reached out while Carroll was at USC. The Seahawks were the only one to meet his terms.
That meant Carroll could get players with the edge he was looking for. If they didn’t have that, or if they didn’t buy into his approach, he could replace them.

“When you know you’ve got your hand in everything and the product you’re about to display on the field has your stamp on it, there are no questions in your mind,” says Carroll’s son, Brennan, the receivers coach at the University of Miami. “There are no other forces pulling on you, whether it be someone wanting this player to play or wanting this defensive set. It’s all coming from a centralized location. At least the message will be the same.”

Carroll and general manager John Schneider have built the Seahawks largely with homegrown players. Thirteen of Seattle’s 22 starters count Carroll as their only NFL coach. His way is the only way they know.

“So you assume it’s like that all around the league,” says receiver Golden Tate, and he laughs at the thought.
Carroll’s style works because he never stopped believing it would. Behind all the focus on his persona, on his transformation after getting fired, is a confidence that never shook. You can read it in his quotes through the years. He is defiant. His approach didn’t fail. It wasn’t given the chance to succeed.

“It’s too bad you didn’t get it,” Carroll told one of his biggest critics, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, in 2007. “You didn’t figure out what I could have brought you. You guys never knew. You never asked me any questions. You guys never figured out who I was. You never even asked. We talked about hamstrings and shoulders and stuff. You guys never did figure it out. It was terrible and it didn’t have to be like that. But all of that having been said, we were just a couple of football decisions from being on the other side of it.”
Pete Carroll obviously sees things differently than most/many football coaches. But his competitiveness, his attention to detail, his belief in his system, his communication, his leadership, his treating each player as a distinct, unique human being make him the coach he is.

He is a revelation. Great for football. And even greater for society (role model with charity work, and work to decrease gang participation).
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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Great bio notes on Pete Carroll, Joe. I ran across this piece, describing a poll among NFL players about who they felt was the best NFL coach to play for:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipma ... eadership/

Pete Carroll was the clear winner--no one really close. This is a nice testament to his humanity, as well as football smarts, but it also has a practical side too. It will, I think, make it just a little easier to keep free agents for perhaps a few dollars less than they could get elsewhere and to attract new free agents in the off-season. Word has it that TE Jermichael Finley is sniffing around the 'Hawks....
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WestCoastJoe
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South Pender wrote:Great bio notes on Pete Carroll, Joe. I ran across this piece, describing a poll among NFL players about who they felt was the best NFL coach to play for:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipma ... eadership/

Pete Carroll was the clear winner--no one really close. This is a nice testament to his humanity, as well as football smarts, but it also has a practical side too. It will, I think, make it just a little easier to keep free agents for perhaps a few dollars less than they could get elsewhere and to attract new free agents in the off-season. Word has it that TE Jermichael Finley is sniffing around the 'Hawks....
Great article, SP.

Some excerpts ...
“Carroll’s creation of a laid back, player-first atmosphere has been a hallmark of his time at both Seattle and USC, and that’s a major reason why players are drawn to him,” wrote Stephen Cohen in seattlepi.com. “Carroll doesn’t fit the coaching stereotype of an inflexible hothead…and that makes him someone NFL players want to work under.”

“Carroll fully believes that compassion is a vital factor in winning football games,” noted Jeffri Chadiha in ESPN.com. “His mantra is Always Compete, and he applies that mindset to everybody who works in the building. In the end, Carroll comes off as a man who ultimately wants to see the best come out of everybody, mainly because of how much joy he would take in seeing somebody else attain that level of success.”
Cohen also noted the key role played by the culture Carroll has created with the Seahawks. “Carroll’s popularity and the culture he’s implemented on the team have likely been key factors in attracting free agents to Seattle,” concluded Cohen in seattlepi.com. “Once considered a distant outpost of the NFL landscape, the Seahawks have been able to attract top talent to the team in recent years.”
The first time I heard of culture with a team was when Igor Larionov came over to play with the Canucks. Igor mentioned it, as to its importance.
Nothing succeeds like success. If you break down Pete Carroll’s approach into basic management terms, he’s an excellent communicator who appears to deeply care about his employees.

He’s a strong recruiter and a fine judge of talent.

He emphasizes employee development.

He’s built a distinctive, cohesive corporate culture in Seattle, one that motivates his current employees and encourages others to want to join it.

On the other hand, many of these same elements – his outstanding communication abilities, his concern for his players, his building of an employee-focused culture – were also integral elements of his management during his first NFL tour of duty. But his teams didn’t perform exceptionally well, and he ended up being viewed as slightly odd – cut from a different style of management cloth than the NFL was accustomed to.
Carroll might seem like an easy going guy, but he knows exactly what he wants, and he gets it. If a player does not buy in, that player is gone. The palsy walsy stuff creates a relaxed atmosphere, but the players better perform, and better fit in.

Bud Wilkinson of the Oklahoma Sooners had a style called "iron fist in velvet glove."

Something like Pete Carroll's style, I would suggest: friendly, supportive but demanding with high expectations. Not all that easy a combination to master, for teams, nor for executives.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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After this discussion about Pete Carroll, I've been wondering whether Mike Benevides might have some Pete Carroll-like characteristics as well. He (Mike) seems like a guy with a good heart and does get animated and pumped up on the sidelines, both during practices and games, like Pete Carroll. I guess the question about Mike would be does he demand the best from his players and have the skill to bring it out the way Pete Carroll does. Of course, it might be a somewhat different experience coaching in the CFL, where guys aren't getting paid like royalty, as opposed to the NFL, where guys will give everything to get to that big paycheque.
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WestCoastJoe
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South Pender wrote:After this discussion about Pete Carroll, I've been wondering whether Mike Benevides might have some Pete Carroll-like characteristics as well. He (Mike) seems like a guy with a good heart and does get animated and pumped up on the sidelines, both during practices and games, like Pete Carroll. I guess the question about Mike would be does he demand the best from his players and have the skill to bring it out the way Pete Carroll does. Of course, it might be a somewhat different experience coaching in the CFL, where guys aren't getting paid like royalty, as opposed to the NFL, where guys will give everything to get to that big paycheque.
Benny relates to the guys, and vice versa, for sure.

Attention to detail? Expertise as a position coach? Competitiveness? Leadership? Motivation? Setting the bar? Systems? Getting the best out of players? Getting the players to play with the ferocity that the Seahawks display? Judging talent with the skill that Carroll shows? Decisiveness (as with first extended view of Russell Wilson, Boom, he is the starter)? Seeing a potential role for a player hard to fit, against the stereotype, as with Red Bryant? The "living on the edge" attitude that Pete Carroll always feels, and which needs the control system on the sidelines (assistant coaches to caution him from always going for it), that he has instituted to avoid rashness? That is a tall order for any HC. Personally, as a fan, I have many unanswered questions about Mike B as a Head Coach. For me, he has the albatross of being the protege of a legend, and chosen as successor by his mentor, Wally Buono. Loyalty comes into play in the relationship. I have to say that Benny has a mediocre resume. Nothing near to the likes of John Hufnagel or Kent Austin. Nor of Marc Trestman when he was brought to Montreal. Nor of Scott Milanovich, with somewhat of a lesser resume than the luminaries just named. Nor even of Chris Jones, with the defences he has cranked up.

Just IMO ... and we are not without hope here in B.C. Just unproven.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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notahomer
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In some ways I figure its tougher now to be a head coach. Benevides has always been VERY friendly to fans. He's usually busy during FANFEST but when he's got time and its a BC Lions event, him and Buono seem to be out and wanting to connect. And you have to figure that carries over to his relationships with the players. I know they still have some boundaries too. Players/Coaches can like each other, respect each other etc... but there still are some divides that have to occur.

When I say it maybe tougher, I just mean it seemed like you used to be so removed. You didn't have to like the players. You could run them into the ground. I wouldn't have enjoyed doing any of that to players but that was the culture then. Carroll's style works wonders too. But its not an easy thing to do. As one of the articles stated Kiffin may have tried to copy Carroll's style/program but it really does have to be part of you......
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